The present invention relates to motorized vehicles. More particularly, the invention relates to apparatus and methods for control and remote monitoring of motorized vehicles.
Today's motorized vehicles exhibit a high degree of intelligence. Most vehicles contain one or more processors that provide control over essential operating systems such as mechanical braking and engine management controls, to nonessential systems such as ventilation. With this intelligence comes a limited form of data acquisition. If a fault were to occur in a system or subsystem, a fault code is dispatched to a central processor located in the vehicle where the fault is logged and annunciated for a user to take action. The action is usually to return the vehicle to a service center to have a service technician extract and translate the fault code.
A processor is usually employed to monitor and store in memory parameters that can be uploaded to a hand-held device specifically for that purpose. Service technicians routinely provide preventive maintenance or perform service calls to diagnose reported problems using these devices. The handheld device can also be used to interrogate certain components to test for proper operation. However, for the majority of vehicles, this is a manual operation. Most vehicle data acquisition systems are not automated communication processes by which data is collected remotely and transmitted over a communication medium to receiving equipment for monitoring and analysis.
Data recorders have also made their way into motor vehicles. Data recorders play an essential role in preserving the acquired data. Unfortunately, the most common in use today is for analyzing accidents. Information such as velocity, braking and other control parameters are recorded with a time stamp and later retrieved for analysis.
Services such as OnStar™ (www.onstar.com) provide telephony in conjunction with the global positioning system (GPS). This subscription service is used for applications ranging from tracking a stolen vehicle, communicating directions to a driver or remotely retrieving codes from an engine controller to diagnose engine trouble or unlock car doors. However, this is only provided when personal safety is at risk or when initiated by a user.
For preventive maintenance or for trouble shooting, a trained technician or mechanic must be physically present in order to measure vehicle performance and observe malfunctions. While the handheld device described above greatly assists the technician, the device must be used at the vehicle. For large vehicle fleets, manual inspection is very time consuming.
In conjunction with ascertaining the health of a motorized vehicle, automated control is almost nonexistent. Limited vehicle control is available today, mostly in the form of radar collision avoidance. Control of the vehicle is left strictly to the user with little or no supervening input by a control system. While GPS navigation is available on many upscale vehicles, its role is limited to vehicle location and giving directions.